Service Level Objective
Service Level Objective — A target value or range for a service-level indicator over a specified period, representing an explicit reliability goal.
Reliability Context
A service-level objective assigns a target to an SLI over a defined period, such as 99.9% successful requests across 30 days. The objective creates an error budget and provides an explicit basis for deciding between release velocity and reliability work.
Contract Boundary
An SLO is not automatically an SLA. An SLA is usually an external or contractual commitment with consequences, while an SLO can be an internal engineering target.
Related Reliability Concepts
- Service Level Indicator
- Error Budget
- SLA
- Reliability